Yvonne Coppard - Work in ProgressThis page is for all my readers who like to be a part of the story-making process. As I work on a book I’ll put extracts on this page, plus the thoughts, ideas and problems I’m having with the book. If you want to comment, or add your ideas for how the story should develop, then you can contact me by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. This month I’m working on: Amelie’s Secret This is a book that I have redrafted a couple of times, but it doesn’t quite work yet. Here’s the basic story: Amelie, Cat’s grandmother, is dying, and her mind seems to keep drifting back to her childhood in wartime France. As a young woman, Amelie had to flee France with her young baby, but buried somewhere in her past is a terrible secret that will not let her rest. She is unable to talk about it, but gives Cat her journal to translate. In this extract from Amelie’s journal, we begin to get the first clues about what Amelie went through during the German occupation of France.
This morning, when I went for breakfast, there was a stranger sitting at our table. Papa says his name is Gilbert de Toule. He has come to work in the dispensary with Papa. Since Antoine left to fight in the war, Papa has not been able to find anyone. He says Gilbert is a student doctor, unable to fight because of his leg - he limps quite badly. It is very sudden, the arrival of this Gilbert. There is something not quite right. His French is too perfect, I think. He does not use slang at all. He does not feel like a French man, somehow. I do not know what it is, just a feeling. He is kind, and polite. He talks to me about Paris where he has lived most of his life. Why do I distrust him? I do not believe he is a student doctor, and I do not believe he saw Papa's advert and travelled here in search of work. I am going to watch him very carefully. If he is here to try and betray my Papa, I swear I will kill him.
There has been no time for the writing of journals these past weeks. There has been an influenza outbreak in the village. It seems strange that such an ordinary thing can happen in war time. There is already so much suffering you feel as if diseases should have the decency to stay away. Papa and Gilbert are working non-stop. I have told Papa not to go close to the worst families, but to send Gilbert instead. Gilbert has no family and if he was ill or died no-one would miss him. I do not want my Papa catching the diseases of the farm workers and other poor people. Anyway it would put us both at Gilbert's mercy, if Papa fell sick. I still do not trust Gilbert. Yesterday he stumbled as he was carrying a pot. He managed not to fall - by putting all his weight on the leg that is supposed to be too weak to carry him. Then last night, from behind the curtain in my bedroom window, I watched him go out with Papa very late, after curfew. They melted into the trees like two cats. Gilbert had his stick with him, but no limp. Papa carried his bag, but I do not believe he was going to see a patient.
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